Cambiar
by denticity
Summary: They'd all changed since they were kids. But he was still waiting.


Unashamedly pointless RukaxKain.

[ _Cambiar_ (Spanish) : change ]

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**Disclaimer**: I don't own Vampire Knight- I lost it to Hino Matsuri in Vegas. She plays a mean game of Go Fish.

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_Cambiar_

_human years: seventeen_

They'd all changed since they were kids.

Some things had remained the same - names, families, skills, status.

But some things hadn't stayed how they'd used to be.

Yeah.  
They'd all changed.

Especially Ruka. However hard she found it to believe - she'd never thought it possible - she was no longer in love with Kuran Kaname. She did not dream of him any more; she went hours at a time without thinking of him. She'd just grown out of the fixation, fallen out of love. She was moving on.

It was something that had been said to her:

"Don't worry yourself, Ruka. There will be someone else for you, someone who really cares about you. That person's out there, waiting."

So Ruka came to realise that, if Kaname didn't truly care for her, he wasn't worth any of it.

Ruka made a mental note to thank Akatsuki for always knowing exactly what to say.

Akatsuki.

He'd been hanging around quite a lot lately - the same Akatsuki as ever: tall; reddish-blond; apparently disinterested with whatever was going on.  
The thing was that he was always there for Ruka (all six feet two inches of him). He was there to comfort Ruka, to let her cry into him (not to mention saving her from that awful Kuran Rido person). He'd been there when Ruka's heart had broken. Twice. Twice he'd held her and assured her everything was going to be okay, be it when Ruka had been in a jealous depression over Kaname and that Cross girl, or some time after that when she'd opened the Dorm Leader's door and found him locked lips with Seiren.

Truth be told, it was probably a better idea to have Akatsuki hanging around than it was to be following Kaname.

**x**

Add a few months and things had changed even more.

Ruka was Kaname's friend. She _could_ be Kaname's friend. No more fawning or obsessing over him. He seemed happy with Seiren, anyway. And Ruka concentrated more on everything else now.

This had proved double-edged, as Ruka had been dismayed to find out that she really didn't know how to do algebra. Luckily, then, there were people in the class who did: Akatsuki, again.

The first time their hands brushed when he was showing her how to solve simultaneous equations was when Ruka first suspected she was developing a crush on him- her heart fluttered and her hand reflexively jerked away (as did his).

But there was nothing wrong with that.

**x**

_human years: eighteen_

A couple more months (and a birthday) later, and everything was going pretty much normal.

Well, except today. Today everything was all wrong- she was exhausted and angry at everything and wanted to go sit outside in the rain. Only it wasn't raining, so she settled for the middle of the staircase instead.

She'd hardly been there for ten minutes when he showed up. (He probably should have been sleeping like everyone else, but by the look of him he didn't do that very often.)

He sat on the inside of the stairway and leaned against the wall, stretching himself out over a few more steps than Ruka was taking up. He did not speak.

Ruka leaned into him, and he wrapped his arms around her waist. They simply sat there and didn't say anything.

Finally comforted, Ruka let her eyes drift shut and began to fall asleep. In that semi-conscious state, her mind pulled to the foreground something she'd been told long months before, something which suddenly and perfectly fell into place.

_Don't worry yourself, Ruka. There will be someone else for you, someone who really cares about you. That person's out there, waiting._

Ruka opened her eyes, and she knew.

**x**

"You were talking about yourself."

**x**

Ruka turned in Kain's arms so she could look properly at him, at the person she now knew truly loved her.

He did not answer, but held and returned her gaze.

Ruka was struck by this: not because she was surprised to learn that Kain loved her- that'd been pretty obvious all along- but because the one look he was giving her showed so much. Ruka recognised it. It was the way Kaname looked at Seiren, the way Shiki looked at Rima; it was true, unconditional love. And Kain's eyes were burning with it, it was written so clearly on his face it took Ruka's breath away.

She wanted him to look at her like that forever.

**x**

Slowly, he nodded, looking away.

Ruka felt a sudden, strong rush of affection for Kain- for looking out for her, being so kind to her, and now straight-out admitting he loved her. She turned back around, leaning onto him again. His heart was beating faster.

"You've been waiting for me," Ruka said softly.

"I always will." His voice was quiet, but if his words had had any more impact, he may as well have been writing them in fire on the sky.

Ruka didn't know what to say. For him to make such a declaration of love for her was difficult to take in. She thought it must bear some similarity to how she'd felt about Kaname, though there was some difference she couldn't quite figure out.

She hadn't known how she felt about Kain before now, but after what had just been said she realised that she wouldn't find it too difficult to love him back. If it were anyone else, she'd have shied away for fear of getting hurt again. But it was Akatsuki- Akatsuki who she'd known since childhood, who'd always been so good to her.

Ruka decided it was worth the chance she'd take.

She took one of Kain's hands in hers and turned back to him. Heart fluttering, she reached up with the other hand, slowly tracing along the side of his face, from his cheekbone to his jaw. His eyes never left hers.

"I don't want you to have to wait any more," she murmured.

And then he caught her face in his hands and kissed her.

If he was going to do that, she may as well kiss back.

So she did, one hand still at his jawline and the other tangling in his hair, securing him there. She didn't want him to let go.

**x**

So that became the way it was.

Ruka and Kain.

And time went by, and Ruka fell in love.

**x**

To tell the truth, the relationship lasted longer than anyone had expected; they all thought Ruka and Kain weren't suited enough for it to work out.

But they stayed together, and everyone just forgot about it.

Until one time Aidou was away, and Ruka got caught sneaking out of Kain's room when everyone else was still waking up.

(There probably hadn't been any real need for sneaking - everybody was going to find out anyway - but still, it had been kind of fun.)

"Imagine," Kain said, "when they find out that wasn't the first time."

(It certainly wasn't the last.)

**x**

Then they graduated from Cross Academy, and there was a brief period of gossipy uncertainty as to what would happen next.

Ruka and Kain decided they'd move in together.  
Well, Ruka decided and Kain said 'Why not?'.

"Ruka," he said, shaking his head, mock scolding her. "What _will_ our parents think?"

Ruka wrapped her arms around his waist and looked up at him. "Don't worry, they know we're together, don't they?"

He raised an eyebrow, amused. "Yes, but do they know just how... _together_... we are?"

"Well, no. But it should be okay..."

"Eh, well, I've got you," he said with an indifferent shrug. "They're not important."

Ruka flushed. Oh, she could hear him say that a million times and then some.

**x**

Turned out coexistence _was_ all it was cracked up to be.

(Their parents were hardly impressed to begin with, but came around once they realised how serious those 'lovesick teenagers' really were.)

For one, there was no more flitting between rooms or hanging ties on doors or having to wake up early to get back to where they were _meant_ to have slept. And no more annoying, nosey roommates.

So it was freedom, and freedom was perfect.

**x**

_human years: twenty _

Two years later, and Ruka couldn't go five minutes without glancing at the sparkling ring on her left hand.

"Are you ever going to stop looking at that?" Kain asked with some amusement.

"No! It's so pretty..."

"Because it's sparkly."

"Yeah..."

Kain laughed. "Then I guess it's a good thing I don't wear anything sparkly as an earring; you'd never pay attention to me when I was talking to you again."

Ruka scowled at him.

**x**

_human years: twenty-one_

There was no scowling on the wedding day.

Everyone was there, and everyone got along.

_Bit of a miracle, really_, Ruka thought.

**x**

And they were happy.

Nothing changed.

**A/N:** This was a thought I had after getting sick of the endlessly repetitive 'Ruka gets over herself and realises that she's actually been in love with Kain all along'. I just don't see that happening; so here's what I see as more within the boundaries of reality.


End file.
